Creating a Personal Branding Strategy

Whether talking with fellow MVPs and RDs, individual entrepreneurs, or established companies thinking about ways to improve their marketing effectiveness, I often find myself sharing the same core personal branding strategies again and again, and so I thought I’d compile a series of blog posts to highlight each of the areas of brand-building.

This is not meant to be a checklist to follow, nor is the goal of this series to walk from A through Z of every marketing term. Some things will apply, others will not…depending on your marketing maturity. Too much of the content that I see from “expert” marketers tends to jump from marketing operation topics to broader branding strategies. The problem with this method is that few of the points actually stick, and so for most people — nothing changes.

When advising individuals or companies, many of the principles of marketing apply. But to be truly effective, brands need to be persistent, consistent, and flexible as the market constantly adjusts. You may have heard of the Four P’s of Marketing: Product, Price, Promotion, and Placement. Additionally, you may be familiar with the phrase “adjust your marketing mix” which is a constant evaluation and readjustment of the Four P’s based on this rapidly changing market. These same marketing factors are always in play.

Building your personal brand is all about understanding and optimizing the Four P’s, and becoming more effective and efficient in seeing the changes as they approach (competitive, industry, purchasing behaviors, and other changes to your market) and to adjust your strategy.

In this series, I am not trying to cover every channel or marketing opportunity available, but will be focusing on five key strategies that can help you take your personal brand from zero (unknown) to sixty:

• Events
• Social
• Content
• Differentiation
• Defending Your Brand

Hopefully, they will provide you with some ideas to put into action as you build out your personal or company brand.